Banca Popolare Italiana won time to unblock its voting rights at take-over target Banca Antonveneta on Monday after a shareholders' meeting at the Padua-based bank was adjourned to Wednesday. The meeting is the next clash in a battle between Pop Italiana and Dutch bank ABN Amro for Italy's number nine bank, which has been seen as a test of Italian willingness to surrender control of its banks to foreigners.
ABN's cash offer, which had valued Antonveneta at 7.6 billion euros ($9.2 billion) ended on Friday with only about 3 percent of its outstanding shares signing up.
In a sudden legal twist, Pop Italiana and financier Stefano Ricucci were stripped of their voting rights when regulator Consob ruled late on Friday that they had acted in a secret pact to build up a large stake in Antonveneta to stifle ABN's bid.
This might have allowed ABN to garner enough votes to nominate a new board at Antonveneta's meeting on Monday but enough investors failed to turn up to stop the board vote.
Analysts expected Pop Italiana and Ricucci to regain their votes by formalising their pact, which means they should win the board at the next meeting of shareholders, due on July 27. "They will formalise the agreement. That will restore their voting rights," a Milan-based bank analyst said.
Antonveneta shares fell last week as ABN's prospects faded. On Monday they were up 0.3 percent at 25.22 euros.
ABN reiterated on Monday that it did not intend to be a minority shareholder at Antonveneta but it did not say what it would do with its nearly 30 percent stake.
A source close to the matter has said ABN will hold onto its stake and smoke Pop Italiana out in a legal battle.
In a parallel take-over tussle, Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria conceded defeat on Friday and dropped its bid for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in the face of a counteroffer from Italian opponent Unipol.
The two banks had tried to prise open Italy's banking sector but only managed to spur domestic resistance with what some said was the tacit blessing of Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio.
ABN stands to make a capital gain of 600 million-700 million euros if it sells to Pop Italiana but despite the Italians holding ABN at bay for now, the battle could still rumble on."ABN can't abandon Antonveneta. It was love at first sight," Francesco Spinelli, one of ABN's representatives on Antonveneta's board, said on Monday.
Pop Italiana owns 30 percent of Antonveneta but with friendly investors, it is believed to control more than half of the capital. Ricucci owns about 5 percent.
Rapid stake-building led by Pop Italiana to fend off ABN has triggered various probes and on Monday financial police seized documents relating to Antonveneta's shareholders meeting.
When Pop Italiana was found to have worked in an undisclosed pact with other shareholders earlier this year, it was forced to make a cash bid for Antonveneta, worth 24.47 euros a share.
That is running alongside a mostly-share bid which Pop Italiana says values Antonveneta at 27.50 a share. Newspapers said that if the Pop Italiana-Ricucci pact was declared, the cash bid price could rise to 24.49 euros a share. A source close to the situation said on Saturday that Pop Italiana would appeal against Consob's latest pact ruling.
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